1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to managing peripheral device usage for a computer system and specifically to maintaining reliable communication between a computer system and peripheral devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer systems may use many different types of peripheral devices. For example, computer systems may receive input from user input devices such as, but not limited to, a pointing device, such as a computer mouse, a keyboard, a microphone, a camera, and a joystick. Because managing wires from different user input devices may be cumbersome, the computer system may use wireless, e.g., radio frequency (RF), signals to communicate with the user input device. For example, an RF peripheral device may transmit an RF signal to a computer system to provide the computer system with a user's inputs (e.g., mouse movements, keyboard keys pressed, etc.). The RF peripheral device may also receive RF signals from the computer system.
While using the RF signals may allow peripheral devices to communicate with the computer system without requiring wires, RF signals may have disadvantages. For example, computer systems may have trouble detecting or establishing a connection with new RF peripheral devices. RF channels used to transmit RF signals may become busy and/or jammed. In addition, RF signals may be lost, may be incomplete, or may be corrupt when received by the computer system. As a result, computer system programs may be disrupted because of incomplete or missing user inputs. Current computer system software may not be programmed to adjust to intermittent signals from an RF peripheral device, and therefore may require consistent input despite an intermittent RF environment.